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Open Access Article Processing Charges: DOAJ Survey May 2014

Author

Listed:
  • Heather Morrison

    (School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa, 111-02 55 Laurier E., Ottawa ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

  • Jihane Salhab

    (School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa, 111-02 55 Laurier E., Ottawa ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

  • Alexis Calvé-Genest

    (School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa, 111-02 55 Laurier E., Ottawa ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

  • Tony Horava

    (School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa, 111-02 55 Laurier E., Ottawa ON K1N 6N5, Canada)

Abstract

As of May 2014, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed close to ten thousand fully open access, peer reviewed, scholarly journals. Most of these journals do not charge article processing charges (APCs). This article reports the results of a survey of the 2567 journals, or 26% of journals listed in DOAJ, that do have APCs based on a sample of 1432 of these journals. Results indicate a volatile sector that would make future APCs difficult to predict for budgeting purposes. DOAJ and publisher title lists often did not closely match. A number of journals were found on examination not to have APCs. A wide range of publication costs was found for every publisher type. The average (mean) APC of $964 contrasts with a mode of $0. At least 61% of publishers using APCs are commercial in nature, while many publishers are of unknown types. The vast majority of journals charging APCs (80%) were found to offer one or more variations on pricing, such as discounts for authors from mid to low income countries, differential pricing based on article type, institutional or society membership, and/or optional charges for extras such as English language editing services or fast track of articles. The complexity and volatility of this publishing landscape is discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Heather Morrison & Jihane Salhab & Alexis Calvé-Genest & Tony Horava, 2015. "Open Access Article Processing Charges: DOAJ Survey May 2014," Publications, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-16, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jpubli:v:3:y:2015:i:1:p:1-16:d:45585
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David J. Solomon & Bo‐Christer Björk, 2012. "A study of open access journals using article processing charges," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(8), pages 1485-1495, August.
    2. David J. Solomon & Bo-Christer Björk, 2012. "A study of open access journals using article processing charges," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(8), pages 1485-1495, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Heather Morrison & Widlyne Brutus & Myriam Dumais-Desrosiers & Tanoh Laurent Kakou & Katherine Laprade & Salah Merhi & Arbia Ouerghi & Jihane Salhab & Victoria Volkanova & Sara Wheatley, 2017. "Open Access Article Processing Charges (OA APC) Longitudinal Study 2016 Dataset," Data, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-10, April.
    2. Oliver Budzinski & Thomas Grebel & Jens Wolling & Xijie Zhang, 2020. "Drivers of article processing charges in open access," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(3), pages 2185-2206, September.
    3. Julián David Cortés-Sánchez, 2019. "Innovation in Latin America through the lens of bibliometrics: crammed and fading away," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(2), pages 869-895, November.

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